The Witching Hour
by Miaka
Summary: Anna attends a Halloween party with her sister and fellow employees at an abandoned old mansion. Supposedly, the mansion curses those with impure hearts. What could possibly go wrong? Rated M for some violence. Basically a Disney crossover but mainly featuring Frozen/Brave/Tangled characters.
1. Chapter 1

For years, Venger Estate had stood alone and forgotten at the end of a forested road at the edge of Harperstown. The ramshackle mansion loomed menacingly behind the overgrown frontage to Pearl Street. It was the only residence on Pearl Street, though long abandoned by the wealthy families that once dwelt there. A thick forest lined the rest of the road on either side with impenetrable shadows between the trees under the Hallow's Eve sky.

A line of costumed guests began at the door and wound all the way out onto the circular driveway. They all chatted in small groups, discussing the biggest event of the evening and how they each managed to get an invitation.

"I heard they did some renovations yesterday just for tonight!"

"Do you think they own the property now? Whatever happened to the Vengers?"

Anna listened to the women behind her gossip as she stuck her head up to try and gauge how much crowd was left between her and the mansion. Had she known she'd be spending so much time out in the cold that night, she would have worn a warmer angel costume rather than one that showed off so much of her legs.

"What's taking so long?" she asked Elsa, whose demon costume complemented her own except for black rather than white, horns and a tail rather than feathery wings and netted stockings beneath a dress that was just a bit shorter than Anna's own. Anna was a little shocked Elsa would wear something so revealing, but as Elsa told her, it was a night meant for mischief.

"It looks like people are stopping at the door," Elsa observed.

Eventually, they made their own way up the concrete entry steps where the mystery was explained. Anna's brow furrowed as she and her sister watched a pair dressed as a dish and spoon scrape their names into one of the pillars supporting the portico. She exchanged a weary look with Elsa as they stepped up to the door.

Standing on the threshold was a withered old butler who didn't so much as have a smile to greet them with. His milky eyes darted from Elsa to Anna and then fixated on the pillar just to the side of them.

"Welcome… rumor has it there's a curse upon this household that will bring someone great fortune or misfortune, depending on the purity of their heart. Are you brave enough to join us this evening?"

Anna could see Elsa biting her lip to keep from snorting at the butler's grave greeting. She herself found the whole thing too creepy.

"Ahem… yes, we're brave enough," Elsa answered for both of them.

Anna held in a groan. The last thing she wanted was for a spooky old house to put a curse on her, not that she put much stock into curses or anything. But if ever there was a night for bad luck, wouldn't it be Halloween?

"Then, please…" The butler shakily lifted one grey hand toward them, making Anna gasp when she saw the glinting knife in his grasp. The sisters threw their arms around each other and squawked in fright until the old man slowly turned the weapon's handle toward them. "..errr, your names, please."

Anna blinked. Then, Elsa blinked. When they realized he was _not_ in fact going to assault them, they cleared their throats and tried to play it off coolly as Elsa took the blade from the butler.

"So we just carve our names and you let us in? That's how this works?" Elsa asked.

The butler nodded. Anna was afraid his head would roll off with the motion.

"Elsa, I don't know if it's such a… Elsa?" When she looked, she saw Elsa was already at the pillar, half-way through her name. Anna held in a whimper as her sister held the knife out to her afterward.

"Do I have to?"

Elsa raised one eyebrow. "You were excited to come to this party, Anna… now, come on."

Anna shook her head at first. "I didn't think there'd be any curses involved!"

Elsa scoffed. "They're just making that bit up for effect. Now, come on. People are waiting behind us!"

Someone in a duck costume shook a gloved fist in impatience. "Yeah, people are waiting behind you!"

Anna looked down at her feet as she accepted the knife from Elsa and turned toward the pillar. Her heart thundered like a race horse approaching a cliff's end as she shakily dragged the point of the blade down in the first stroke of the first letter of her name. She paused and glanced back at her older sister, who gestured for her to hurry.

Anna gulped and dragged the knife back down from the same point of origin, connecting the lines with a smaller one in the middle.

A

What was the worst that could happen? It was just a party! She had heard somewhere that names had power, though.

N

She had to laugh at herself. The Diz Corp wouldn't host a party at a venue that was actually haunted.

N

She and her sister were perfectly safe here.

A

She stared at the names on the pillar for a moment, her breath catching when she recognized a certain one. Her fingertips tingled oddly as she turned away and handed the weapon back to the grim butler, who stepped aside to let the sisters in to the party.

* * *

About an hour into the event, Anna had forgotten all about the pillar. Diz Corp had really gone all out with party decorations. The entryway featured a bloody fountain, the bubbling red contents of which were actually blood orange and pomegranate punch. There were cobwebs, black lighting, warped and broken mirrors, serving staff dressed as goblins who offered trays of finger food, some of which had been made to look like severed fingers. Speakers had been added all throughout the first level and, Anna assumed, the rest of the house, to blend in with decorations so that music could be heard no matter what room guests went to.

She made her way from room to room, careful not to veer too close to anyone dancing. She learned her lesson after she got pulled in for an uncomfortable few rounds of twirling with a guest dressed in wolf costume. She couldn't even see if she knew the person because of the gruesome mask over their head. Eventually she yanked herself free and waved before she darted on to the dining room. There were all sorts of hors d'oeuvres and miniature desserts splayed out across the long table. Anna squeezed between two chatty groups of guests to grab herself a chocolate macaroon. As her hand closed over it, a larger gloved hand closed over hers, having reached for the same dessert. Anna looked up and felt her heart do somersaults when she met a green-eyed gaze across the table.

"Hans!"

She covered her mouth with her free hand, her other still trapped between his palm and the macaroon. His lips spread into a slight grin which revealed a pair of fake fangs. She ran her eyes over the rest of his costume – the red and black satin cape, brocade and flocked velvet vest with a dark shirt, a crimson ascot neck piece and cloth gloves.

"Anna," he greeted her in return, carefully lifting her hand up from the dessert tray to brush his soft lips against the back of her hand.

Her mouth twitched as she fought her own foolish smile, but the smile won the battle. She squawked as one of the goblin servers suddenly appeared on her right to lay more napkins on the table. After a mumbled apology for startling her, the server left. When Anna looked back across the table, Hans had gone.

Then, she heard his silvery voice in her ear.

"That costume suits you, by the way."

Her cheeks heated up. She wasn't sure whether it was the compliment itself or the warmth of his breath. She inched just a bit to the right, knocking into the chair beside her and chuckling awkwardly as she turned to face him, holding in her own compliments about his costume.

Hans Westergaard did not deserve her praise. He'd ghosted her only a few weeks back after a month of what she had thought were wonderful dates. Apparently, Hans had not felt the same way.

She opened her mouth now as she watched his gaze slowly travel down her dress.

"You, you… look suitable as well!"

Hans chuckled as she cringed.

"You always did have a way with words."

"So it was my rambling that put you off."

 _Shut up, Anna. Shut up, shut up._ She tore her gaze away from his, pretending to be fascinated with a distant corner of the room.

"Not at all," he answered breathily. She felt him move closer.

"S-sorry. They must have spiked the punch. Haha!" Her fingers twitched by her sides until she hugged her arms against herself for the sake of not appearing too self-conscious as she backed up. This time, she managed not to bump into any chairs. Her stomach fluttered when she looked up to catch him smiling at her.

"Anna!"

Her eyes darted toward the open doors. The fluttering in her belly turned into a heavy weight when she found Elsa and Kristoff rushing toward her. Anna removed herself even farther from Hans, not wanting the exchange to be misunderstood. There was nothing to misunderstand, after all.

"E-Elsa! Kristoff, hey! Nice costume…"

She couldn't help glancing back and forth between dashing vampiric Hans and disheveled zombie Kristoff in his bruisy, gruesome makeup. Kristoff wrapped a possessive arm around her shoulders and gave Hans a violent glance before he took a moment himself to admire Anna's dress.

"Elsa said you were here as an angel, but wow. Just. Wow!"

She blushed, but the statement did not have quite the same effect on her as Hans's had.

"Ahem…" Elsa raised her eyebrow at Hans before wrapping her own arm around Anna and, together with Kristoff, slowly leading her little sister away from the dining room and back into the boisterous antics of the nearby ballroom. "I thought you said you'd never talk to him again?"

Anna gently freed herself from their protective arms, blinking at the two of them.

"I didn't. He talked to _me_. It was nothing."

"Nothing? Anna..."

She glared at Elsa. Was it necessary to get into this right now?

"I'm with Elsa," Kristoff chimed in, only serving to irritate Anna further. "Need I remind you how miserable you were the last few weeks all because the guy ignored you?"

"Maaaaaybe he lost his phone…?"

Kristoff and Elsa both groaned.

"Come on, guys. People lose their phones all the time."

Kristoff rolled his eyes, but Elsa just patted her on the shoulder. "Whatever you need to tell yourself. Just… stay away from him. He's trouble. See?" She pointed one black manicured finger back toward the dining room. Anna turned back to find Hans already charming a pretty brunette in a tiger-girl costume.

Her heart sank, but she was grateful for the reality check.

"Okay, already. Can we stop talking about him and just enjoy ourselves?"

Somewhere, a grandfather clock began to chime, echoing throughout the house. Anna counted ten chimes while she danced with Kristoff and Elsa among the other guests.

That's right. All she had to do tonight was enjoy herself.

* * *

Anna wasn't sure how much time had passed. The music, dancing and alcohol kind of made the night pass by in a fun blur. She stood together with Elsa and a woman from sales named Merida, who'd come to the party as a cute witch. They were just discussing Merida's strange triplet brothers when Elsa paused the conversation.

"Hey, I'm parched. Do either of you want punch?"

"Sure!" Anna smiled. Merida shook her head. She'd had enough to drink for the night.

"Be right back!" Elsa winked and ducked into the crowd to weave her way across the ballroom.

"It must be nice to have a sibling closer in age. Seems like the two of ye get on well," Merida said.

Anna nodded, hearing that distant grandfather clock start to go off again.

"We've always been pretty close… she's a bit too protective at times, but I know I'm lucky."

"Heh! Mine are just wee devils."

Anna chuckled, though inside she had thought that clock was rather obnoxious. Could the entire mansion hear it? Would they have to listen to it a full twelve times?

"I'm sure Elsa has had the same thought about me from time to time," Anna admitted. "Love your costume, by the way!"

Merida perked up and looked down at her black, ruffled dress. Her pointy hat wiggled as she moved her head. "Thanks! My mother helped me make it."

 _What was that, ten chimes now? So obnoxious._

"Wait, you made that?!" She'd assumed the other redhead had bought it from a costume store.

Merida nodded, her chin jutting up with well-deserved pride.

"Took us a month, but aye."

The clock chimed midnight then. That was when everything went wrong. Merida noticed before Anna. Her electric blue eyes widened as she turned toward the crowd. Then, Anna noticed the screams too. The black lights flickered as a deafening groan filled the room, which sounded partly like the very walls and floorboards might be torn from the room. The other guests began to run in all different directions. Some fled for the nearest doors and windows. Glass shattered as some threw themselves outside. Others ran into each other. Merida and Anna clasped hands, staring in horror. Anna's grasp tightened when she caught sight of Kristoff stumbling nearby. She almost called out to him, but she stopped.

"Is it just me or does something seem wrong with him?"

"Aye, it's not just you…"

Kristoff paused, his gaze oddly lifeless as he stared at an old lady cross in front of him. He suddenly grabbed the poor woman and promptly bit into her neck, blood gushing from his mouth while he began to eat her. There was no other word for it.

The two redheads screamed, having seen all they needed to understand they needed to leave. They searched the crowd wildly for a way out. One exit was blocked by a mess of armored guests clashing weapons. Animals and monsters alike ran rampant.

"Anna, there!" Merida pointed to a door behind a line of one of the tables with refreshments. The girls nodded and screeched as a unicorn charged in front of them, nearly running them through with its silver horn. Then, Anna grabbed for Merida and made a run for the door, not stopping to look back or to make eye contact with any of the guests that paused to look at them.

The door led them into a narrow corridor which opened into the vast entrance hall, where the chaos was no better. Together, they ran past other screaming guests and sprinted up the grand staircase.

They ran through the ghost of a young girl crying at the top of the stairs. Anna remembered having seen the girl earlier, Alice.

Merida and Anna looked left and right. A werewolf and the tiger girl from earlier were wrestling on the floor to the right, so the two women ran toward the left. They ran to an empty bedroom near the end of the corridor and slammed the door behind them.

"WHAT was all that?!" Anna yelped as she fumbled with the door lock, trembling with relief and panic when she managed to slide it in place. "Am I awake? Are you awake? What did they put in the punch?!"

Merida was equally bewildered. "Okay, okay, let's just.. calm down. What the devil did we just witness?"

"Chaos. Total chaos."

"But what did we actually _see_? A zombie, a ghost, a… ah!"

"What?!" Anna looked around, frightened by Merida's exclamation until she realized the girl was pointing at her wings.

"Those definitely just moved!"

Anna glanced over her shoulder and cried out as her wings spread open. The rippling sensation in her back was not unpleasant, but totally foreign to her.

"What's happening?! Wait, why haven't you changed into a witch?"

Merida looked up as she tapped at her witch hat. "Maybe I have?"

"So…try some magic!"

Merida stared dumbly. "Magic like what?"

"I don't know! You're the witch!"

"Hem… okayyyy…" Merida looked about the room. Then, she removed her hat and closed her eyes.

Anna waited a few seconds before she asked, "What are you doing…?"

"I'm, I'm concentrating! I've never witched before, have I? Now, shush, you!"

Her nose wrinkled as she reached into her witch's hat as if searching for something. Then, her bright eyes opened as her face lit up with victory. She slowly pulled out a small, blinking rabbit.

"AHAH!"

Anna smacked herself on the forehead. "Oh, great! That'll protect us!"

"Arr, well what's so useful about an angel? Couldn't you have dressed up like a… a…"

"Like a what?"

"Something useful!"

Something slammed against the bedroom door. The girls both squeaked.

"Is somebody in there?!" a voice called from outside.

Anna's face lit up when she recognized the voice.

"Punz!?"

"Anna?!"

"Yes! Are you okay?"

"Yes, but what the heck is going on?! It's crazy downstairs! I came up to hide!"

"Anna… wait…" Merida reached for Anna as she approached the door.

"What? She's my cousin, it's okay!"

Merida grabbed for Anna's arm as she reached toward the lock. Anna frowned.

"What was her costume?" Merida asked.

Anna squinted in thought as she tried to recall. But she hadn't seen Rapunzel up to that point in the evening. There were so many people there that they just hadn't bumped into each other.

"I'm not sure… hey, Punz? What did you come to the party as?"

She heard her cousin's sheepish laugh from the other side of the door. "Just a chef."

"See? She's fine!"

Without hesitation, Anna undid the door lock.

Merida squawked in a panic. "Oy, w-wait!"

The door suddenly knocked forward into them. Merida and Anna stumbled back, steadying each other as they jerked their heads toward the doorway.

There they found a blood-splattered, giggling Rapunzel with a stained cleaver raised high and ready for them.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** So, this came from a writer's prompt on Discord, but is also hugely inspired by the "Halloween" ep from Buffy season 2. This is just going to be a short fun series (three or four chapters) for Halloween. :) Also, if anyone wants to help me out with Merida's dialogue, I'd appreciate a private message for assistance with getting her voice right.

Diz Corp is a play on Disney. The idea is this _huge_ corporation is throwing a huge event for its employees, who don't all necessarily know each other.

What are the witch and the angel to do against a homicidal chef? I know cliffhangers are the devil. But this is a Halloween story, so sue me. :P


	2. Chapter 2

Merida grabbed Anna by the elbow and yanked her away from Rapunzel's line of attack as the cleaver swung down. Thankfully, it missed its target. With a shriek, Anna grabbed Merida, who still had the rabbit in her arms. Together they leapt away from the door and fled from the maniacally laughing chef with the weapon aimed at their backs. They rushed from one end of the room to the next, leaping over the bed, knocking a chair down in their path. Finally, Anna grabbed hold of Merida's hand and flew up to one of the ceiling corners.

Below, Rapunzel let out a vexed little huff.

"Punz, get ahold of yourself!" Anna snapped down at her blonde relative.

Rapunzel propped one eyebrow up, glancing up at her victims and then at the weapon in her hand, then back up again. Her lips slowly stretched into a sadistic grin as her freakishly long hair coiled around the handle of the cleaver.

"What the devil!?" Merida barely had time to exclaim before the murderous chef's _hair_ flung the cleaver up towards them, providing reach where Rapunzel's arm could not.

Anna screeched and pushed her feet against the wall to dive out of the way with Merida in tow. Merida dropped the rabbit, which was apparently of no interest to Rapunzel. Instead, the chef howled in frustration as her cleaver bounced back down to the floor. She bent to retrieve it, having to wriggle it free from the carpet.

"What do we do?!" Anna whimpered, having flown herself and her companion to the opposite corner. To exit the room, she'd have to swoop them down within arm's reach. But she couldn't just fly from corner to corner to dodge Rapunzel forever.

"Wheeheee!"

The two redheads gawked down at the gleeful blonde below, who had finally wrenched her weapon free and frolicked toward them for a second slaughter attempt. Merida growled and raised one hand, focusing on an invisible lasso of power. She wrapped the magic around Rapunzel and flung the girl into the wardrobe, quickly locking it shut so that she and Anna could return to the floor.

"Guys, come on!" Rapunzel yelled from her confinement. "I was just kidding!"

Anna and Merida exchanged wary glances.

"Now what?" Anna scurried back over to the bedroom door to shut and lock it before anyone else decided to attack them.

Merida scratched the back of her head. "Dinnae!"

"Well… you're a witch… maybe you can just magic everything back to normal?"

"How do you propose I do that? I've been a witch for all of fifteen minutes!" She leaned down to the floor and scooped the rabbit back up, holding it out awkwardly the way a person does with an infant when they've clearly never held a baby before. She frowned in thought and attempted to stuff the rabbit back into her witch's hat, much to the rabbit's displeasure.

"We can't just stay here…"

"Oy! Let's call the police then? 'scuse me, officers, we're at a party where things have gone a wee bit DISASTROUS. And we don't know how to tell ye this, but everyone's turned into what they were dressed up as! By the way, we're not crazy." The disgruntled witch had to temporarily give up on the rabbit and set it down on the floor again, letting it hop away as it pleased.

Anna sighed and plopped down on the bed. "I see your point… but again, we can't stay here. How long until someone else turns up?"

Merida nodded.

"Hey…" Anna's eyes lit up with a sudden idea. Merida looked over with reserved interest. "Don't mansions like this usually have hidden passageways?"

Merida shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to look."

Together, they searched the room for any sign of a way out that didn't go out into the hall, where who knew what dangers waited. They looked under the bed, searched the fireplace, turned over books on the shelf and lifted objects up off the night stand. Finally, they noticed distinct giggles from the wardrobe.

"Oh, guys?" the blonde maniac asked from inside.

Disturbed, Anna and Merida both turned toward Rapunzel's temporary prison.

"There's a hole in the back of this closet. It must lead somewhere. Is that what you're looking for?"

Anna was partly relieved. But she gulped along with Merida.

"We're not lettin' 'er out."

"C'mon, guys!" Rapunzel protested. "I won't cut you up… too much."

Something suddenly slammed against the bedroom door. The girls heard a wild growl from out in the hall. Merida and Anna looked back and forth between the wardrobe and the bedroom exit, weighing the dangers.

"Okay, on the count of three. I'll open the wardrobe… and you… do something," Anna suggested.

"Oy! Do what?!"

"Well, don't tell me or she'll be expecting it!"

Merida rolled her eyes as she pulled her sleeves up. "Arr, fine. Wait." She put the hat back on her head. "...ready. Let's go."

There was another violent thump against the bedroom door.

"One.." Anna mouthed voicelessly.

"Two…" they whispered together. "Three!"

Anna shoved her fear aside and flipped the wardrobe lock latch up so she could tug the door open, putting herself behind it. Rapunzel hummed as she leaped out with the cleaver at hand. But Merida was ready for her. With one flick of the witch's wrist, Rapunzel went flying dead-center into the nearest wall and remained stuck there. By that point, whatever was trying to get into the bedroom had started cracking through the door. The girls dove into the wardrobe and closed it behind them just as they heard an explosion at the bedroom door. They kept as silent as they could, both feeling around in the door for the hole Rapunzel had taunted them about.

Anna's hands trembled as she carefully slid her fingers along the wall behind her. The last thing she needed was to cry out over a splinter. Luckily, her hand ran over the crack which revealed the door. Bootsteps stomped across the room they left behind. Anna did not even want to try peeking through the crack between the wardrobe doors to see what they'd avoided. She could hear Rapunzel threatening whoever—or whatever—it was.

Anna gingerly pushed the loose board, stepping halfway into the passage behind before she grabbed Merida to follow. She hoped Rapunzel wouldn't be in any real danger while she and Merida worked to undo the magic cast over the party.

* * *

Anna led the way. They had to feel their way in the dark. The passage smelled ancient. It was narrow, its walls lined by cobwebs. Anna swatted them away as best she could, trying not to cry out each time she ran into one. The secret passage clearly had not been used in some time. Hopefully the spiders were long gone.

Every now and again they would hear screams or a howl on the outside. They would stop, startled out of their wits. Merida would always gather her wits first and be the one to tap Anna on the shoulder as a signal that they should press on.

Eventually, Anna's hands ran into a wall. At first she panicked that they had come to a dead-end. But as she stretched her arms out first to the right and then to the left, she felt an opening to the left. She almost broke her neck taking a step in the direction, for there was an unseen drop. Merida heard Anna and helped steady her at the top of what they both realized was a winding stairway heading down.

"Well, we're on the second floor, right? Wouldn't mind being on ground level," Merida whispered.

Anna nodded in the dark. "Right… let's go…"

They descended past what they were sure was the ground level. When the steps ended, the passage walls were no longer boarded but merely rock wall, as if they'd climbed down into a cavern. Luckily, the tunnel was lit by a distant light. They followed it all the way to the exit through a cellar door lined by wrought iron. Thankfully, the outer door was not locked and they were able to climb out. Outside of the mansion, they found themselves in the moonlit gardens full of serene Roman statues and flower bushes.

"Whew… I told Mum I'd have fun tonight… I am definitely not havin' fun."

"That makes two of us…" Anna looked down and began to dust herself off.

Together, they walked from statue to statue, unnerved by the eerie features left by erosion. Some were missing parts of their faces and limbs. One archer didn't even have a head. Anna refused to put her back to it, frightened it might come to life. Stranger things had happened that night already.

"…. _na_ …"

Anna stopped in her tracks and shivered. Was that just…?

" _Annaaa…._ "

Anna raised her eyebrow. "Did you say something?" She turned her head, looking for any other source of noise. When Merida did not reply, Anna looked again and found herself alone. "Merida?! Merida!" She whirled around and around, her wide blue eyes darting from statue to fountain to statue. But Merida had disappeared. Her frightened gaze leaped over something red and black that hadn't been there a second ago. She looked again to find Hans resting along the wide ledge of a larger fountain, his arm resting on one leg bent up, his other leg stretched out.

He gracefully slid off of his perch and bowed to her.

"Um…" Anna's heart stopped, but she forced herself to keep talking. She thought he looked a little pale. But perhaps he was just shaken by the events at the party. "Hey there… glad to see you're safe."

Hans stalked up to her, strangely silent until he stopped just in front of her…

…and started sniffing the air between them. Anna gulped. She started to step back. Quick as lightning, Hans grabbed her wrist.

"I was wondering what smelled so… delectable."

Anna tore her wrist free and glared at him. "I'm not food. You're under a curse. The whole party is."

He tilted his head, reminding her of a puppy; only, he'd be a puppy that wanted to drain her blood.

"I wouldn't say immortality's a curse," he mused. He pulled her against him and dug his nose against her bare shoulder, making her yelp. "Why…why do you smell so _good_?!"

"H-Ha-Hans! Stop it! Listen to me—"

"Oh, come on. It only hurts at first."

"Wha…?"

"Once I get going, you'll enjoy it."

Her face lit up like Christmas then. She almost fainted with dizziness and confusion as she smacked her fists against him. "I-I-I BEG YOUR PARDON?!"

The vampire chuckled, his fangs glinting in the moonlight before he gently but firmly tilted her head to one side. Then, he leaned in…

"I said listen to me!" Anna screeched and shoved with all her strength. A white light enveloped the two of them, knocking Hans to his knees. Anna panted, her breaths hot and heavy as she blinked down to find him staring up at her.

The mischief had left him, replaced with concern. "What did you do to me…?"

"Do? I didn't do anything… ah!"

He suddenly hugged her by her bare knees and rubbed his face against her legs, making her squeal and wriggle as she tried to free herself.

He bit at the fingertips of his gloves and drew his bare hands out of them to touch her bare skin. "Ugh… I just wanna… sink my teeth into your ankle here, but I…" His icy fingers snaked down her calves, his thumbs rubbing circles around her ankles. Anna squawked and shifted from foot to foot, trying to shake him off while grasping for composure. "…I can't…unless…" He looked up at her, his gaze drunkenly hazy. "Unless you let me. Will you let me taste you, Anna? Please?"

"NO. What is the matter with you?!" She grabbed him by the hair to yank his face away from her legs, uncomfortably hot and tingly.

Hans groaned like a child who'd been denied his favorite treat. "But I'm soooo hungryyyy…"

Anna rolled her eyes. Whatever she'd done, it appeared she was safe from his appetite for now.

"Just… sit tight for a bit. I have to find Merida and Elsa and-and-and figure out…something. I don't know. We have to figure out a way to fix this."

"Find who? Fix what?"

"It's not supposed to be like this."

Hans frowned. "If you say so…"

Satisfied that he was no longer going to try and eat her, she turned away to resume her search for her companions.

But the vampire called out behind her. "Where are you going?"

She stopped in place, his whine oddly endearing but also irritating. "I told you. I have to go fin—"

Suddenly, she felt his hand in hers. "Can I come with you?"

She turned toward him. "You're just hoping I let my guard down so you can bite me."

Hans shrugged. "I already told you. I can't unless you let me. I do hope you let me. Angel blood smells heavenly." He smiled at his own little play on words.

Anna blushed. "OH… I see! It's because I'm an angel!"

Hans tilted his head again. She wished he'd stop doing that. He slowly drew her hand up against his shirt, a teasing smile on his lips. "Why? Did you want it to be more than that?"

Anna growled and yanked her hand away. "Never you mind! You can come along if you're going to be useful. Just _don't_ get in my way!"

She heard his soft chuckle behind her as she charged on ahead.

"Yes m'am…"

* * *

 **A/N:** Ughhh, so I caught a cold at the tail end of my friends' visit. It's been very hard to work on this update. I think I'm just going to push out slightly shorter chapters in the interest of not letting so much time lapse between chapters. I know it's not Halloween anymore, but hopefully those who were reading can still enjoy. :) Thank you for the reviews, guys!

What happened to Merida?! We'll see in the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Merida groaned as she came to. One moment she'd been in the eerie gardens with Anna. The next, she tripped and fell. No… a tile had come loose beneath her, sending her into a deep pit from the look of it.

But that was just the thing. She couldn't see in the darkness around her. She blinked, wondering if it was just a matter of waiting for her eyes to adjust. God only knew how long she'd been down there.

Her fingers flexed against dirt before she raised her hands and reached around. But there was only shadow and air.

"Anna?!"

There was no reply, but she did catch a slight shuffling of feet. She whimpered then and focused on conjuring a little light. Magic was the darnedest thing though. It didn't always want to work the way she wanted. Little sparks flickered in her hands for her first attempt. Then, a marble of silvery light hovered over her palm. But it only lit just her hand.

Merida cursed under her breath and wiggled her fingers in a demand for her power to extend itself. The silver glow spread throughout what she now thought resembled a small crypt.

A mummy stood in the corner of the room, facing the wall. Merida screamed before she could stop herself, and the creature turned its head. Only, that made Merida's screams louden, for the mummy's eyes were just dark holes peering out at her from under its wraps. The monster made an incoherent gag and went running toward her. Though it was slow, the room was small and Merida's flight quickly became an awkward game of duck and dodge. There was no visible exit. So, thinking quickly, she conjured an opening into one of the dirt walls and dashed through it.

Merida screamed again, but this time it was in surprise to find she had dashed straight into the mansion entryway. She whirled around to check for the creature behind her, but the crypt was gone. There was only the front door to Venger Estate.

Panting still, she turned back to gaze about the entrance hall which was empty now save for a few bodies lying on the floor. She gulped and hoped for a way to reverse the events of the evening.

"Oy… now what? Anna must still be in the gardens…"

Mid-way through turning for the exit, someone called out to her.

"Finally someone I recognize."

Merida froze and looked back to find Elsa coming down the grand staircase.

"Elsa! I was just… errr… wait, how are you feeling? Are you not a demon now?"

Anna's sister shrugged with surprising grace for someone who'd been drinking all night. Yes, Merida noted there was definitely something different about Elsa.

"I pretty much feel the same," Elsa answered. "Just a little more inclined for mischief. Where's Anna?"

Merida sighed when she remembered. "We lost each other outside. I was just going to find her."

"Well, let's go then!" The demoness smiled.

"Err… you're sure you're not feeling murderous or anything?"

Elsa blinked at the question. "Silly witch. Demons have no interest in killing. We're more concerned with… well, don't you worry about it."

That last part did not instill confidence in the witch. In fact, she knew she was taking a risk in trusting Elsa. But knowing the sisters would be relieved to be united, she decided not to address her wariness.

Merida gave the demon a curt nod before she led the way back outside.

* * *

The shuriken flew spinning out of the rows of hanging plants. It dinged off the robot's head and straight toward the window Anna peered in through from outside. She squeaked and ducked, narrowly missing a throwing star in her face as the weapon crashed through the already partially broken window. The weapon went flying into the black and gnarly night behind her. She paled and braced herself for pieces of glass to rain down upon her. But they never came. Instead, she looked up to find Hans had shielded her with his cape.

Her mouth hung open for a moment. She wanted badly to read into his protection, but she knew better. To Hans, she was a meal right now.

Still, Anna began to thank him. But Hans brought a finger up to his lips to motion for her silence. The angel's gaze dwelled on his perfect mouth for just a moment before she gingerly leaned up on her knees to peer into the conservatory again.

They did not want to get caught in the fray between the robot and the ninja. But all the other entrances to the mansion were or were likely to be crowded. Anna held in a sigh and continued to watch the duel just inside. She wished she could speed up time, but that apparently was not an angelic skill.

Goosebumps prickled her arms and neck as she felt Hans's stare.

"What?" she asked, flustered.

The pause before his reply was irritatingly long enough for her to expect sincerity.

"I missed you…"

That made Anna roll her eyes. "It's no use buttering me up. I haven't changed my mind."

"No, no, I mean it. I missed you!" His cool hands suddenly cupped her cheeks and turned her face toward his.

She shivered at first. Then, her anger took over.

"You had a strange way of showing it…"

"Huh?"

She stood away from him, seeing the fight indoors had ended with the robot victorious, sparks flying from its splintered limbs as it stumbled back into the main house.

"What do you mean?" Hans asked.

"Shhh… we don't need the robot to come back."

She reached for the brass handle of the conservatory's glass door and gently pulled, relieved to find it unlocked. Not wanting to take her chances that the hinges might creak if he opened it too far, she squeezed in when there was just enough space. All the while, she was conscious of Hans's listless stare. But she ignored him as she entered the room full of plants.

"Uh.. Anna.." Hans called behind her.

She slowly turned around, agitated until she watched two thick vines wrapping themselves around and around Hans's legs. Too late, she felt another pair snatch her and begin to wrap around her own. Both she and Hans yelled as they were yanked up into the air. Anna screeched and flailed as the vines shook and flipped her upside down. Her wings fought to free her, but more vines had flown up to wrap about her body, quickly restricting her feathery struggle. Anna trembled to exert all her strength into tensing up her muscles to keep the vines from tightening any further around her.

"Now, this is confusing…"

The voice came from below. Anna looked down to try and pinpoint the source.

"A vampire and an angel hanging around each other? That's just unnatural."

Without warning, the leafy bindings knocked the angel and the vampire into one another. Anna groaned, her head aching. Her eyes fluttered open as she felt Hans against her, no closer to shaking off the vines than she was. As she glanced back down at the ground, she saw a young woman in green leering up at them.

"Interesting. He should be all over you, but he's holding himself back… and the effort it's taking him is just palpable!" The woman laughed. "I wonder if he'll be able to control himself if… oops."

Anna shrieked as she felt dozens of sharp points suddenly stick into her skin as the vines around her jutted out with thorns and cut into her bare arms and legs.

"Anna!"

She winced and looked into Hans's eyes, seeing the struggle as whatever hold she'd had over him weakened. Hans's eyes now glinted with fierce hunger as his monster within fought to regain control.

"Hans—" She tried appealing to his best behavior. Her blood went cold as she watched the vines around him loosen just enough for him to grab her. That drunken gaze of his returned as he inhaled deeply.

"You smell… too good…" He made a noise like a whimper which elicited a grudging shudder from Anna even as she tried to lean away from him.

"Hans, wait—"

He stuck his hot tongue out and dragged it up the little lines of red trickling down her forearm. Anna winced with a squeal, wriggling in protest. But her moving just let the thorns dig deeper into her.

"P-please, Hans…"

He paused and leaned toward her, his lips tinged with her fresh blood. Anna was hopeful for a heartbeat. She started to appeal to him again when Hans shushed her with a feverish kiss, invading her mouth with his tongue. Anna whined as she tasted her own blood on him, her own tongue fighting with his as she melted in the agonizing tug of war between fear and want.

"Please Hans, what?" The teasing lilt to his voice made her burn.

She gasped, not having noticed when he broke the kiss, so enraptured by it. She looked into his eyes, remembering his fangs, her body shaking from the soreness of her bleeding cuts. A peculiar tingling gripped her, though inside she tried to fight it. She was suddenly obsessed with his mouth, his teeth and above all, his hunger.

"Please… please, Hans, bite m—"

"ANNA!"

Anna looked down when she heard two voices shout her name. After a deafening snap, she dropped and fell to the floor. Elsa was suddenly there beside her, murmuring in a strange language as Anna groaned from her fall.

"Oy! Over here!"

Anna glanced up in time to see Merida leading away the plant puppeteer. Still lightheaded, she turned and looked around for Hans. But he was nowhere in sight.

"Where…?"

She felt Elsa's cool fingers investigate the cuts on her arm. Anna hissed in pain.

"Hang on, Anna…" Elsa cursed, again murmuring in that strange language Anna had never heard her use before. She wanted to inquire about it, but the world around her quickly faded to black.


	4. Chapter 4

Anna felt submerged as if in water while she slept. That is, she was fairly sure she was asleep. In no waking reality would she and Hans sit so intimately in a movie theater.

"Ah!" she exclaimed when she noticed all the American southern belles singing on the silver screen up front. She recognized the movie from her second date with Hans.

"Shh… people are trying to watch…" Hans breathed against her ear as his cold hand slid up her thigh, causing involuntary shivers.

Now Anna had zero doubt that she was in a dream. She would never have paid money to see the film a second time. It was one of the worst she'd ever seen.

She clamped her thighs together, trapping Hans's icy fingers between them. He snarled as she turned toward him.

"Is this all my imagination or are you somehow in my head?" she asked.

His fangs glinted in the static light from the screen as he gave her a coy grin. "I guess you'll never know, huh?"

Anna yelped as he dug his fingernails against her skin. By reflex, she opened her legs to swat his hand away. Wasn't pain not a thing in dreams?

"We have to get back to the party," she insisted through gritted teeth when Hans's fingers pinched and prodded at her in what was clearly a full-on attempt to make her squeal out in a public place.

"Says who?" he challenged her, momentarily distracted by her neck left exposed between her braided hairstyle and a low-cut blouse. Anna looked down at the shirt, certain it was not part of her wardrobe. Was she or was she not dreaming?

"Shit," Hans muttered. He glanced up as if he'd heard something. Anna pried his hand off her and took a deep breath to calm herself. Never had she had such vivid, naughty dreams.

"Everyone's in danger," she reminded him.

He shrugged. "You're safe here. But once you wake up…" As he trailed off, his hand twitched as he lifted it toward her again.

"Hans!" She swatted at him. "What do you mean, once I wake up…?"

But Hans did not want to listen. He locked fingers with one of her hands and drew hers up to kiss her fair knuckles one by one. His eyes never left hers.

"You're not drinking my blood, just so we're clear," she stated firmly.

"Then what will you give me instead?"

Anna blinked and looked away as the dark theater flickered.

"No…" Hans growled when he noticed it too. "Anna, listen…"

She heard him, but was preoccupied. She stared up at the blinking recessed lighting. The lights flickered twice in a row and then paused in the darkness. _Anna_ , they seemed to say.

"You're not safe," Hans went on. "Because I drank your blood, I can sense it."

"So you _are_ in my head?" she remarked, accusing.

He groaned. "I was set up. I tried to behave."

"Where are you? I mean… if this is in my head… where are you?"

 _Blink, blink._ The lights flashed again. _Anna_.

"I'm just waiting the night out. I can't be near you now that I've tasted you," he answered. "Just… be careful."

 _Blink. Blink._

Hans's growl sounded softer than before. The room around them grew light, as if someone had opened a door to outside. Anna shielded her eyes.

"…na."

 _Blink, blink. Blink. Blink._

"Anna? Anna!"

She tried to speak, wanting to ask Hans if he knew anything else. But the room was taken over by a growing, blinding white light.

* * *

Anna opened her eyes to find herself in the comforting arms of her sister. She grabbed Elsa to make sure she was real. Elsa groaned as her breath was knocked out of her by the redhead's sheer strength. A swaying figure beside them caught Anna's eye.

"Merida!" Anna exclaimed. She jumped up in excitement to see her new friend again.

"Aye. Glad to see you're safe!"

"Safe…" Anna murmured, her talk with Hans weighing over her. He'd said she would be in danger once she woke up. Rightfully, she should have been annoyed that he'd been so cryptic. At the very least, she should have been skeeved out that Hans had gotten into her head like that. But she was just glad to be reunited with Elsa.

Anna turned to fill Elsa in on what she'd seen, but she let out a little cry when she actually took in Elsa's changed appearance. There was no doubt that it was her sister – the same features were there. But there was a violet glimmer in Elsa's blue eyes now, and it radiated…not the malice one might expect of a demon. If Anna had to pick a word for it, she would have chosen alertness. The black horns and flicking tail were no less astonishing.

"We need to figure out what we're going to do," Elsa said, frowning at Anna's obvious scrutiny. "It seems that all the guests... including us, have turned into their costumes."

"But how?" Anna furrowed her brow.

"Mibbie the food?" Merida asked.

Elsa shook her head. "I'm sure most of the guests ate something, but did they all? It has to be something everyone definitely partook in."

Anna's gaze drifted up to the greenery all around them in the conservatory. She'd thought that the mansion had been abandoned for years, but it looked as if someone were looking after all the plants. Her brow furrowed.

"Wasn't this place supposed to be haunted?" she asked. Merida and Elsa exchanged thoughtful looks. "Oh, come on. What was it that butler said?"

"Na, 'e said the mansion's cursed, not haunted," Merida corrected Anna. " 'e literally repeated the same spiel to everybody at the front door. But I don't know how much stock we should put into—"

"That's it!" Elsa interrupted with a clap of her hands, the abruptness making Merida squawk. When the other two stared blankly at her, she rolled her eyes. "Don't you remember we all scratched our names into that pillar? Before the butler let us in! Everyone did it, right?"

Anna had forgotten all about the creepy butler. But it made a certain sense. Everyone had had to add their names to be let inside the house. At the time, it seemed intended to add to the atmosphere, but it was still odd to deface a property that had stood for over a century. True, the house was supposed to have been vacant for years. But apparently that had been a misconception too!

"You think putting our names on that pillar set off that curse the butler was talking about?" Anna asked.

"I think we could at least go investigate," Elsa answered

"Are we forgetting about all the murderers running amok?" Merida snapped. "Why should it be up to us to investigate? Diz Corp is responsible for tonight, not us." The Scotsgirl crossed her arms and seethed.

"You yourself said it. We can't call this in to the police. Even if we did, what could they do against vampires and werewolves?" Anna said.

Merida tensed up and squared her jaw, but her eyes softened as she lowered her gaze to the floor. No one wanted to say it, but there had been deaths that night as well. If it was indeed a curse they were dealing with, they had to hope there was a way to reverse it.

"Hem… well, what are we standin' around for?" Merida asked with a forced smile. Anna appreciated her bravery.

"Right… the hall there should lead us to the entrance," Elsa said as she indicated the door that connected the room to the main house.

Merida sighed and gave Anna a wary look before she followed after Elsa, who had already started to lead the way. Anna hesitated, looking one last time around the conservatory. Some hanging plants had been knocked from their perches during the fray against the woman in green. She gulped as she thought about what other dangers were waiting within the house.

"Anna?" Elsa called, holding the door for her.

"Coming!"

* * *

Anna stayed close to Merida as they followed Elsa down the narrow corridor which would, Elsa said, take them back to the entrance hall. She had meant to ask her sister what she'd encountered before they were reunited, but it probably was no better than the homicidal chef or needy vampire. An odd sensation settled over her when she thought of Hans again. He was there somewhere, waiting out the rest of the night. He would stay away from her for her own safety, which meant he cared about her. Probably just as a human being. She wouldn't read into it any more than that.

Weren't vampires supposed to lack morals or something? Could Hans actually be trusted to keep away from her? Her angel's blood seemed to have a primal effect on him as a vampire.

Suddenly, the redhead bumped into the witch in front of her. She gasped and looked up ahead to see why they had stopped. They'd reached corner which opened leftward into the larger hall. Elsa had stuck her head out to check the entrance hall and was gesturing madly with her hand behind her. Anna looked at Merida and then at Elsa's hand, recognizing it was an adamant dismissal.

Then, Anna heard it—the slow shuffling of lazy, uneven steps accompanied by a mindless growl, a noise no healthy human would make. Elsa glanced back over her shoulder, looking furious to find Merida and Anna still standing there, a violet fire flickering in her eyes as she again waved them away.

"C'mon, Anna," Merida whispered, searching along the walls behind them until her eyes settled upon an ordinary door.

Anna resisted at first as Merida tried to lead her away. What about Elsa?

"Anna. She's a demon. She can defend herself," Merida hissed, tugging harder at her friend's elbow.

After another yank, Anna allowed herself to be led through the door, which brought them into a large, empty kitchen.

Anna jumped and screeched when a loud blast sounded out from the hall they just exited. Merida grabbed at the angel whose instinct was to run back out and check on Elsa.

"Let-let go!" Anna begged. "She could be hurt!"

"And whatever hurt her could come after us next."

Anna fell silent. Merida was right, but she didn't want to admit it.

Thump. Something knocked against the wall outside. A scraping sound followed it as if someone was dragging something along the wall while moving toward the kitchen door. Merida gulped and looked around, nudging Anna and pointing at a dumbwaiter among the cabinets. But that would surely only fit one of them.

"What about you?" Anna asked, but Merida was already shoving her in the direction of the cabinets.

"Witch, remember?!" Merida winked and turned to face the door as Anna reluctantly raced toward the dumbwaiter. There was a small circular window looking out of it, which was a relief to her as she opened the dumbwaiter door to find a dark compartment within. She banged her knee as she rushed to crawl inside, reaching back to close the door behind her just in time as something banged at the kitchen door. She struggled to twist herself around so she could look out through the small window, wanting to make sure Merida had found herself another hiding spot.

"Wait, what?!" Anna squeezed forward to try and see out to the far corners of the kitchen, for Merida had disappeared.

The kitchen door burst open. Frightened, Anna backed up and crouched to make herself as small as possible. Merida must have crawled into a closet somewhere, she reasoned.

Anna held her breath. The person who had entered the kitchen had uncertain steps. At first she thought it might be Elsa trying to figure out whether Merida and Anna were there, but Elsa surely would have called out. Then, Anna's heart stopped when she heard the same growl she'd heard out in the corridor with Merida. Alarm bells began to sound off in her head and she felt herself shake even as she hugged her arms around herself and pressed as far back into the corner as she could. Why did the creature make it into the kitchen? What did that mean for Elsa?

 _Will they be able to see me?_

She glanced up at the light coming in through the round glass as she was paralyzed by inertia. She could kneel for a second to peek out into the kitchen, but then she might be spotted.

There was a loud, monstrous cry followed by the clanging of pots and pans falling to the floor. It had knocked into something, sending kitchenware flying everywhere. If only she had the courage to peek out there, she could see if its back was turned to her. She could make a run back out into the hall and find Elsa.

No, no she couldn't. She would stay right where she was and pass out from fright if the creature didn't leave soon. She held in a whimper as the shuffle of feet drew nearer to the dumbwaiter. Then, there was a silent pause.

A shadow crossed in front of the window, making Anna gasp and jerk with fright as she was startled, her foot kicking against the side wall and echoing within her hiding spot. Terror engulfed her as she realized that she had to have been heard.

A darkness started forming at the back of her mind as she sat, frozen like a deer in headlights. The shadow returned to the window. It grew as the creature's quiet, dragging footsteps approached the dumbwaiter door. All Anna could do was wait and hope that it wouldn't be able to see her in the dark interior.

She swallowed a scream as a familiar face inched up to the window, staring lifelessly through the glass. He searched aimlessly as he scratched at the door, his once warm brown eyes glazed over and cold with his insatiable, undead hunger.

 _Kristoff_.

* * *

 **A/N:** Poor Kristoff. Poor Anna. Poor anyone reading this. Will update again soon! We are nearing the end of the story, believe it or not.

Thanks for following and reviewing!


	5. Chapter 5

There was almost no effort to using magic now. As Anna ran off to hide, Merida merely thought to herself she had to become invisible. When she glanced down, she saw only the floor beneath her; she could not see her hands nor feet, not even her dress. A loud thud made her look up in time to see Anna crawling up into the dumbwaiter and shutting herself within. Merida held in a groan, hoping the other girl would not find herself trapped in there.

Though Merida had heard the approaching wall scratching from outside, she was not prepared for when the kitchen door swung open. The force behind it slammed the door into the wall. Merida jumped back, having been a mere couple yards away from it. She wanted to back away even more as the person in the hall staggered in, but sheer horror rooted her in place.

It was no person who'd stormed into the kitchen, but the zombie spotted in the great room back when chaos had originally taken over the evening. Merida gulped as the creature, human yet not human, jerked its ghastly face toward her. Its eyes were milky, its blond hair and heavy chin splattered with globs of blackish red which made the witch's stomach turn.

The creature must have sensed her, for it growled and took a step toward her. Merida held in her breath, terrified that just exhaling might set the creature off to an attack. Even if it could not see her, she was sure if it felt her, it would maul her.

Those dull, empty eyes flitted from right to left as its teeth snapped. It took another stumbling step toward her and Merida reflexively stepped away, which put her back up against a counter. Thinking quickly, she looked frantically around the room until her gaze landed upon the pots and pans hanging over the center of the kitchen. She swallowed and focused all her energy into hurling everything from the rack. But her fear was getting in the way, blocking her focus.

Snarling, the zombified man trudged another half-step toward her. Any closer and it would walk right into the panicking witch. Cold sweat dripped down the back of Merida's neck. Morbid thoughts raced through her, such as would she remain invisible if she was struck down by this monster? Would anyone ever find her body? Would she become just like it, but unseen?

She didn't expect the thundering anger that suddenly rattled her at the idea of dying at the company party. But rather than dwell on the shock of it, Merida harnessed her fury and again sent an invisible force to strike against the hanging rack on the ceiling. To her relief, every single pot and pan rattled and went crashing down upon the island counter and floor. The zombie snarled and took off toward the mess on the floor as if trying to catch whoever had knocked them down. Only when it turned away did Merida feel herself trembling, nausea roiling through her body. She slid down against the counter behind her until she collapsed to the floor, wanting to cry.

But this was no time to cry. The zombie had lost interest in the mess of cookware in favor of the dumbwaiter at the other end of the room.

 _Did 'e see Anna?_

The witch's knees ached in protest as she slowly rose to her feet, her every nerve fighting against her. Her instincts told her to keep put or possibly run away. But she couldn't leave her new friend in danger.

A thud sounded from inside the dumbwaiter. Merida cursed inwardly at the other girl for giving herself away as the creature peered inside the dumbwaiter window.

The angel let out a scream that she obviously tried to cut short. But it was too late. The zombie had heard her and growled as it started scratching at the dumbwaiter door. Its undead brain could not remember certain mechanics, but it was only a matter of time before those gnarly hands figured out how to slide the door open.

Merida's fingers twitched as she raised her hands toward the mess of pots and pans on the kitchen floor. Long, black lightning-like tendrils rippled in from the hall and knocked the zombie aside before they dissipated into thin smoke. The zombie recovered quickly, however, whirling around to face the open door. Elsa stood in the threshold, staring it down. She waited only a heartbeat before darting back out into the hall. To its own perception, the creature now had an easier target. It quickly jumped to pursuit, abandoning the dumbwaiter and the witch both to chase after Elsa.

When it was gone, Merida counted to ten and then dashed to the dumbwaiter to help Anna climb out. Anna was paler than natural, more visibly shaken than she had been by anything else occurring that night. Merida rested a comforting hand at her back as she took her aside.

"…have to undo it. That…that wasn't Kristoff, yet it was. Not like Rapunzel. I mean, she wasn't Rapunzel, but she was… but… but Merida, we have to… we just have to…"

Merida nodded, giving the poor girl time to recover. Something about the zombie had really set her off. Apparently, she knew him. Kristoff, did she say?

"He was like a monster! I couldn't take seeing him like that!"

The witch nodded with sympathy, grateful not to have seen anyone she knew equally twisted by the mansion's curse.

"Anna!"

Both Merida and Anna turned back toward the door to find Elsa standing there. The demoness ran over and quickly embraced her little sister, who fell apart the moment Elsa held her. Merida kept her eye on the door, anxious for them to keep moving.

"I led him back to the conservatory," Elsa said quietly.

 _Aye, good_ , Merida thought.

"But come on, let's get out of here!"

Merida could not agree more. She followed alongside Anna as Elsa took the lead. Merida found it a little odd that Elsa seemed to know where to go, but she was just as eager to put the kitchen behind them.

They did not go through the swinging kitchen door, but through one nearer to Anna's hiding spot. This took them through a servant's entryway which took them a long way around to the grand entrance hall.

The three women barely made it passed the grand staircase when a unified shout echoed throughout the hall.

"Halt!"

Metallic footfalls approached from both staircase and from the various entry points around them. As the girls circled about, they found themselves trapped between three groups of men in suits of armor. One of them locked off the front door.

 _Knights?_

Merida scowled as she recognized them from the clash after the stroke of midnight.

"Please, we're in a hurry," Elsa snapped at the man blocking the door.

"Silence, she-devil!" an exaggeratedly deep voice boomed from the upper level. All eyes drifted up to take in the regal figure staring down upon them.

"…Eugene?" Anna called when she recognized her cousin's boyfriend.

The brown haired, scruffy man with the crown on his head scowled.

"You shall address me as _Your Majesty_."

Merida noticed the amusement exchanged between Elsa and Anna. Apparently they were acquainted with the 'king'.

"Sh-She-devil?" Elsa repeated, only now appearing offended. "Eu…Your Majesty, we are trying to save everyone. We need your man to move aside."

"Yes. Punz is somewhere upstairs!" Anna smiled.

Merida shuddered to recall the homicidal chef that had attacked them earlier.

"DO NOT SPEAK TO ME SO INFORMAL, MADAMES."

"Yikes!" Anna squawked and stepped behind Merida with a gulp that was audible to the witch. "We don't have time for this. People are dying… Merida, can you do something?"

"Me?" Merida choked. But Anna was right. If there was a chance they could reverse the curse of the evening, the sooner they got to it, the better.

The witch held in a snort when 'King Eugene' began his descent down the grand staircase, his cape a red velvet. His chest plate over a royal blue tunic featured a golden crest of a snake fighting a bear, and his golden crown looked a little large for his head. But he certainly carried himself as though he were meant to be wearing it.

Merida glanced back at the knight who was blocking the front door. She flicked her wrist to try to shove him aside with her magic, but nothing happened. She bit her lip and tried again. But still, the knight was unaffected.

"Any time now…" Anna murmured as the king reached the bottom of the stairs.

"It's not working," Merida snapped under her breath.

"Huh?"

Merida swallowed as the king signaled to his knights to crowd around them.

"Oh, enough of this!" Elsa scoffed and held her hands close together in front of her chest. The same black lightning Merida saw earlier crackled between the demoness's hands, swirling in one growing mass as she focused her demonic power on charging up to an attack.

"Elsa, wait, we don't want to _hurt_ them," Anna hissed.

"Screw it, Anna. If we undo everything, it doesn't matter, right?"

Merida did not miss the uncomfortable look Anna gave her older sister. But before either of them could further discourage Elsa, the demoness cried out and launched her black lightning toward the king and the knights directly on either side of him. Both Merida and Anna cried out, stunned to find the king merely smirk as Elsa's attack came rushing at him.

…but nothing happened. Elsa's attack fizzled out the moment it reached both the king and his men.

"I don't… understand…" Elsa murmured. She growled and began to charge up another attack, stepping up beside Merida as if getting closer would make her hit more effective.

"Seize them!" The king's smirk darkened as the knights moved in. The women backed up against each other to face the approaching threat.

"It's not going to work," Merida remarked, seeing Elsa still working on her next attack. The black mass of energy between her hands sizzled and crackled. She shot Merida a disapproving glance. "They're wearing cold iron."

The demoness seemed to bite her tongue before relenting to this truth. The angel, however, looked back and forth between her sister and Merida, increasingly distressed. But the knights were already upon them, grabbing them by the arms and escorting them forcefully to the king.

"Cold iron? What does that mean?" Anna asked.

"It's in a lot of folklore. It repels malevolent magic," Merida explained. The king smiled as he overheard her explanation.

Merida gulped. If the king was suspicious of them before, he most certainly saw them as a threat now.

"Throw them down in the dungeon," he ordered, his eyes glinting and his chest puffed out with pride at his own authority. "I was going to interrogate them first, but… I don't believe that's necessary now."

* * *

"Why is there a dungeon in this place, anyway?" Anna asked in disapproval as she peered out from behind the bars of their confinement. Elsa had taken a seat on one stone corner bench while Merida paced around the six by six cell.

"The house is old," Elsa responded, albeit distracted in her own little corner. Anna looked from her to Merida. The witch muttered under her breath, clearly agitated.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked.

Merida paused and shot her a dirty look. "You mean aside from the fact that we three are trapped in here?" Then she removed her pointed hat and ran her pale fingers through her unruly hair with a scowl. "Oi, sorry. It's just I was able to cast so easily before… now suddenly I can't."

"Their armor must have affected us."

The two redheads turned back toward Elsa, whose eyes gleamed purple with her returned mental presence.

"I can't use my power either, or I'd have gotten us out of here by now. Those bars could be muffling our abilities too."

Elsa looked crestfallen at this fact, wringing her hands as she bent her head down.

Anna opened her mouth to offer some assurance, but an odd feeling cut her short. She abruptly sensed an odd presence among them, though there was no one in the cell with them.

"Oi, look out!" Merida cried.

Just in time, the angel yanked her hands back and jerked her head toward the cell bars to see sparks fly as a cleaver came knocking down with a deafening clang. In a heartbeat, Elsa and Merida were on either side of Anna, glaring down the maniacal chef outside their cell. Rapunzel pulled her blade back and waved at the trio as casually as if she'd just encountered them all at the grocery.

"You~hoo~guys! You should see the looks on your faces!" the blonde managed to say between gasping breaths of giggling.

"Aye. Pure hilarity," Merida remarked, unsmiling.

"What's hiiiilarious," Rapunzel quipped, no longer laughing, "…is that you're the ones trapped in there… while I'm out here!"

"Can you let us out?"

Merida and Elsa looked at Anna in horror. "What?!" they cried together, neither one sure that they'd heard correctly.

Rapunzel, whose hair had taken hold of her cleaver, wrapped her little hands around two of the bars and peered in at them. Her wild green eyes gleamed with intrigue. "What did you just say?"

"Let us out," Anna repeated herself. "See, I know you're um… intending to slash and hack away at us and all, but we've got something really, really important to take care of first. So, how about we cut a deal? You let us out, we go take care of things and then you can slash and hack all you want?"

"What the devil are ye playing at?!" Merida snapped.

"Exactly what I want to know!" Elsa grabbed at Anna's shoulder, trying to pull her little sister away from Rapunzel's reach. But the blonde didn't show any intentions to attack for the moment.

Instead, Rapunzel's lips curved up into a smile as she studied Anna after giving the other two a quick and impartial glance.

"What sort of things do you have to take care of, cousin?" Rapunzel inquired, the familial term layered by an extra sweet tone to her voice.

Anna cringed. "Oh, you know. I have to go kiss a boy."

The mad chef nodded, tapping her fingernails along the bars. "And them?" She indicated Elsa and Merida with a single upward nod.

Anna looked back uncertainly. "Errr… Elsa has to break up with someone… and Merida… has to… call her mother." She gave her cousin a nervous smile and waited for some reaction.

Rapunzel just stared wide-eyed at her supposed explanations and then tilted her had back to start laughing all over again. But just as quickly, she cleared her throat and shot the three of them a scrutinizing gaze.

"I don't believe a word of that. Well, except for maybe you kissing a boy~ I saw you with that redhead earlier… ooooh, there we go!" Rapunzel paused and pointed between two bars as a blush crept over her cousin's face. "I struck a nerve!"

"That's enough," Elsa said icily as she firmly lowered her cousin's pointing finger and glared in warning. Rapunzel shrugged and took a couple of steps back, considering. "You can just forget about the hacking and—"

"I'll do it," the chef declared, now deadpan. "Let you out, I mean. To go about your business."

The change in her moods unnerved them.

"Anna, wait—"

Anna turned to her sister and interrupted. "She's going to be able to get in if she wants to, anyway."

Elsa's wide gaze flickered toward the measly lock and rusted chain hanging between the cell door and the bars next to it. The chain wouldn't be able to withstand a few swings from Rapunzel's cleaver.

"Aye," Merida agreed. "We should probably step away from the door then."

Elsa looked displeased about the means of their escape. But she took Anna by the arm and guided her several steps out of the way.

"Go ahead," Anna instructed their cousin, gently prying her arm free from Elsa's iron grip. As far as she was concerned, the choice was to let Rapunzel release them on their terms or for it to happen when they let their guards down.

The chain clinked as Rapunzel slammed her weapon down upon it.

This had to be the better option.

The second blow echoed throughout the dungeon. Anna felt herself tense up as the blonde yanked her cleaver high in the air to bring it down a third time. This time, the chain snapped and slid to the stone floor.

No one else moved as Rapunzel bent to retrieve the broken chain. She stowed it away in her apron pocket and looked back into the cell with one eyebrow raised. "Ready when you are."

Merida narrowed her eyes at the way the cleaver twitched in Rapunzel's hand behind her back. But Anna was already at the cell door, giving it a tentative push and letting it swing outward. The angel was about to step out first when Elsa stopped her. The platinum blonde kept her eyes on the chef as she made her exit, not so much as blinking lest Rapunzel turn on her.

"You guys are very on edge, huh?" Rapunzel chuckled with a shake of her head.

Anna was next out of the cell with Merida close behind her. They looked in both directions and found themselves in the middle of a long corridor with barred cells on either side. To the far left was a dead-end, but the trio could make out the bottom of a spiral staircase at the end on their right. Elsa nudged the other two and was about to take the first step forward when something shot out past her from behind.

Anna yelped as she turned to find Rapunzel's eyes wild and menacing as she locked onto the freed prisoners. Her long blonde hair stretched out toward them. They didn't wait to see if she would attack them with her hair itself. The three women darted toward the spiral stairs at the end of the dungeon hall without looking back, though they could hear squealing laughter behind them, followed by the eerie scrapes of the cleaver dragging from cell bar to bar.

A couple other prisoners watched the pursuit from within their own cells. They backed away from the bars when they saw Rapunzel coming. The few seconds it took Anna to slow down and make this observation put her several footsteps behind her sister. Something soft coiled around her ankle and yanked her backward, making her stumble. She cried out and struggled to rise. But Rapunzel's hair ensnared her.

Elsa heard her sister's cry and turned back from the base of the stairwell. She yelled out and blasted her dark lightning past Anna, sending it hurtling toward the chef. Helpless, Anna held one hand up to try to stop Elsa from attacking. Cursed or not, Rapunzel was still their cousin.

Luckily, Rapunzel dodged the attack, though the crackling shadow came close enough to her hair that she freed Anna's ankle to protect herself. Anna scrambled and sprinted toward her sister.

"Behind me," Elsa snapped, startling Anna. The angel obediently darted back behind Elsa and watched Rapunzel's approach from around Elsa's shoulder. She thought for sure Elsa would attack again. Instead, her sister whirled around and gestured for her to press on toward the stairs.

Merida beckoned them wildly, waiting until they reached her to lead the way up. All the while, Rapunzel's deranged giggles followed them.

Anna was just turning the second leftward bend when something slammed into the threshold that opened up into the stairwell down below. She looked down over the rail, surprised to find Elsa was so far behind them. Her older sister screamed from the bottom steps. Anna tripped and grasped the railing for balance as she turned back and looked down upon the scene below. Elsa had her arms held protectively over her head as dirt and cracked stone fell upon her from the ceiling. Rapunzel rushed forward and ran head-first into the distracted demoness. The two rolled to the floor in a snarling struggle; Elsa tried to kick the chef off of her while Rapunzel cooed and raised her cleaver high as her little hands wrapped around the demon's neck.

"Elsa!" Anna shouted, trying to use her powers to do something, anything. But her magic wouldn't work on a human like Rapunzel and she couldn't think what to do.

Then, there was a loud pop. Dark tendrils shot out from Elsa's spread fingers and sent Rapunzel flying into the stairwell wall.

"I'll hold her off," Elsa called up to Anna. Merida was at the angel's side, gently trying to pull her along. Anna held her ground, frantically trying to run down the stairs. "Anna, don't! Get to the gate! I'll meet you there."

"What gate?" Merida and Anna asked together.

Elsa didn't look at them as she answered, for Rapunzel had recovered and was picking herself up. "The—oh, just get to the front door pillar. I'll meet you there!"

"Anna, come on," Merida whispered, once again pulling lightly at her friend's arm.

Anna whimpered as Rapunzel's head snapped up toward them. She leered as her fair golden locks slowly lifted her blade, pulling it back, back and back.

" _Now,_ Anna!" Merida cried. But Anna gaped, caught like a deer in headlights. She couldn't leave her sister again, not after the zombie scare.

The hesitation was too long. Rapunzel flung the cleaver directly at Anna, who realized too late that it was coming right at her. Then, she was saved by a wave of black lightning as Elsa knocked the cleaver out of its path with her magic. Unfortunately, Elsa's lightning crashed into the staircase, ripping up stones and tearing the railing to pieces in one place. Merida and Anna grabbed for each other and held on for dear life. They watched in horror as a chunk of the spiral stairs below them completely crumbled, leaving no way for Elsa to follow.

"Anna, we have to keep moving," Merida urged, wrapping an arm around Anna's shoulders to turn her away from the fight below. Anna stared at her, speechless. More shouts and crashes sounded out from below where Elsa was trying to buy them more time.

"I-I can't—"

"You have to. Elsa was fine before, she'll be fine now. But she can't deal with your cousin if she's distracted by protecting us."

Anna said nothing, her brow creasing with worry. After a second, she nodded and reluctantly climbed up the stairs after Merida. It took all her discipline not to stop and keep looking down to check on her sister.

Elsa would be fine? She hoped Merida was right.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sooo, I really took my time with this chapter and if I'm not mistaken, it's a bit longer than the others. Things have been crazy busy with me transitioning toward a new career. All exciting, good stuff. But I was finally able to finish this chapter. I'll begin drafting the next one this week. I believe it will be just two more chapters, but I might make it three depending on how long the last chapter is.

Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Things certainly looked bleak. But Merida trudged forward anyway. She practically had to drag Anna up the remaining steps which curved three more times before emptying into a pitch-black passage not unlike the one she and Anna escaped through previously.

The sounds of the girls fighting grew quieter and quieter behind them. But by habit, the angel kept turning back. Merida felt for her. Truly, she did. She'd have been an equal wreck were she to have to leave her three brothers behind to danger. But there was a bigger picture here.

If the curse could be broken, maybe everything could be undone. They just needed a little more information. The pillar was a great place to start. But Elsa had been the one to think of that. Without her, it seemed that she and Anna were just flailing from threat to threat. Could they do this without the demon?

She caught herself. _Oi. Don't think of her like she's dead just yet!_ She had to stay hopeful for Anna's sake.

Just like before, they felt their way along the walls in the dark. They eventually stopped at a deep recess.

"This may exit into one of the bedrooms," Merida whispered. Anna only murmured to indicate she had heard.

The witch worried for her companion but let her be as she gingerly stepped into the opening in the wall. She spread her hands out before her and furrowed her brow as she tried to summon her magic again. Thankfully, she was able to conjure a dim light to reveal the path before them.

"…why didn't you just do that sooner?" Anna asked.

Merida scowled. "Didn't think of it, did I? What with being useless back in that dungeon."

"You weren't useless," Anna protested. Her voice was quiet, but firm. Merida glanced back at her with one eyebrow arching.

"You weren't," the angel insisted, stepping up to her side. "You saved my life back there. Thank you."

Merida's gaze softened. "Aye… nae problem…"

Together they examined the slate tiles at the back of the space in the wall. In a moment, they spotted the outline of a hidden door. They exchanged a silent gaze before Merida stepped up. She leaned close to the door with one finger held up to her lips to signal absolute silence so she could listen for any noise on the other side of the door.

When she was satisfied at the absence of growling or footsteps, she rolled up her dress sleeves and nodded back toward Anna. Anna moved in behind her and followed as Merida carefully pushed at the door.

The witch didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until they came out on the other side, finding themselves in an empty bedroom.

A neatly made queen size bed stood out from the left wall, neighbored by cherry wood night stands on each side with matching glass shade lamps left on. Someone had been in the room before them. Merida hoped the person was safe.

Anna made a sound, clearing her throat and gesturing toward the opposite end of the room. The blood drained from Merida's face when she glanced over to find the bedroom door broken to splinters, a space left looking out into the upstairs hall. The angel whimpered and fell upon the bed, looking defeated.

Merida could not get herself to move to comfort her friend. She wanted to. She just didn't know how.

"Ah… right…" she spoke, tearing her eyes away from Anna who had brought her knees up on the bed. The angel sat, hugging her legs and staring aimlessly while Merida circled the room, thinking out loud. Someone had to stay on task. She was good at that at least.

"The pillar's still what connects everyone," she said as she carefully approached the demolished door to peek out into the hall. She neither heard nor saw anyone out there. "The pillar has got to be the answer."

"Can you destroy it with your magic?"

Merida looked back with surprise. Anna sniffed once and stood up, clearly trying to gather her wits and help.

"What, and damage the house?"

Anna made a face. "Well… but have some perspective."

The witch's lips twitched and slowly spread into a tired grin. Here she'd thought Anna had been struggling with the bigger picture.

"Aye, I mean… I guess I can try that. And if you're wrong?"

The angel frowned and held her hands open. "What other ideas do we have?"

Merida nodded and turned toward the broken door again. Nothing. They had no other ideas.

"Onwards, then?" she said. It wouldn't do to continue until Anna collected herself. To her relief, Anna strode up to her side, her chin up and eyes alert. Then, she gave the splintered doorway a cautious gaze and paused.

"After you, though."

The girls chuckled, each masking her fear. But they would get through this as best they could. The witch nodded and took the lead through the mangled doorway. Anna followed a step behind her. Out in the corridor, Merida gave both directions a cautioned check before she turned right. They cleared a corner and nearly made it to the grand staircase when Anna stopped short.

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

Merida shook her head, but then actually stopped and listened. The eerie silence upstairs was broken by crying from one of the rooms behind them. The witch groaned as she caught the pained look on Anna's face.

"Anna, we should keep…"

Keep moving, she'd wanted to say. But Anna had already turned away to investigate. The witch groaned and shook her head as she watched Anna cautiously put her ear up to the first door. With a shake of her head, she beckoned Merida to follow her to the next door.

This time when Anna listened, her eyes lit up and she reached for the handle before Merida could caution her. The crying within became much clearer with the door open. But Anna froze in place in the doorway, staring into the room. The shock on her face propelled Merida to run forward to see what the angel had discovered.

* * *

That grim butler, who had greeted all the guests with his cryptic spiel, stood at a double sink with his arms crossed. He turned his pale face toward the intruders at the door and frowned. Anna shuffled in towards the source of the crying, a large alcove bathtub…or rather, the ethereal, glimmering form of a young girl crouched within it.

Merida let the angel handle the task of comforting the child while she strode up to the butler. She stretched her hands out, prepared to throttle the man, elderly or not. "You!" she hissed. "You're the cause of all this!" Then, she remembered she had magic now.

The old man twisted toward her and slid his feet apart, angling his arms up into a defensive position.

"Hah!" the witch scoffed as she brought one palm up, propelling the butler up from the floor. He cried out and grabbed for the bathroom counter; he tried to hold on but failed. "I can hurt ye without laying a finger on ye unless we get some answers!"

"Merida, n—"

Anna's shout was cut off by a wailing cry from the apparition in the tub.

"Leave Grimsby be!"

A girl about the age of ten hovered up from the bath, floating past Anna to the elderly butler. Merida was given a start being able to see through the girl's transparent body. The edges of her form gave off a mist-like substance that dissipated an inch off her skin.

"What, like he let us be?" Merida snapped. She felt Anna's hand tap her shoulder.

The apparition lowered herself to stand on the floor. She had long blonde hair tied up by a black ribbon, and a blue dress with a punch stain on it. Merida hoped it was punch, anyway.

"This is all my fault, not Grimsby's," the girl said, her demeanor transitioning from a despondent child to a graceful young woman. She wiped at her face.

"Your fault?" Merida's brow furrowed as she stared at the teary-eyed child. "I highly doubt that…" Her intense sky blues narrowed as she gave the butler a critical frown.

"Well, it's my family's fault, broadly speaking, but I'm responsible for the events that took place here tonight. You see, I… leased out the house to Diz Corp for this party."

"You…?" Anna and Merida spoke in unison, then turned to one another.

"You mean you own this house?" Anna squawked.

She nodded pitifully. "I'm Alice Venger."

That still didn't explain how she was responsible for the evening. Merida raised an eyebrow. "But Diz Corp put this party together. Surely you have nothing to do with this? The house IS in fact cursed?"

Alice Venger let out a wry laugh. "Perhaps sharing the truth will help me to rest in peace."

The hairs on Merida's arm stood up. So, the mystery behind the night's chaos was finally about to be explained. Somehow she felt no relief, only vague dread. Whatever Alice Venger had to tell them, it wasn't good.

"The original curse lay not with the house, but on my family," she began. Although she appeared quite young, her voice took on a mature cadence. Merida would have sworn that Alice was at least in her twenties, and not the imp of a girl standing before them. Then again, the house had transformed some guests more than others. "Our wealth goes back four centuries, if you weren't aware."

"Aye, but is that nae a blessing?"

Alice paused, her eyes wide. "Hardly. Some fool ancestor of mine made a deal with a demon to ensure his and all his family's monetary fortune."

"Demon? Wait, what? An _actual_ demon?" Anna asked.

Merida held one hand up to halt the conversation. "What does something that happened centuries ago have to do with tonight's madness?"

The question appeared to put Alice on the spot. The specter actually grew paler. "Well, our end of the deal was to…"

"Was to…?"

"We had to repeatedly open a door to the demon's world in order to 'feed' it."

Anna sank down to sit upon the ledge of the bathtub, staring mutely at the tile floor while Merida took in all that Alice was sharing with them. It wasn't pretty.

"My family had to sacrifice one soul each year to this demon in exchange for all our riches. I'm ashamed to say this went on for generations. I thought I would never have to make the sacrifice myself, but then... tragedy hit, and everyone else moved away. At first, I resisted. But then the demon's door grew, letting in... unnatural things."

The angel and the witch looked at one another.

"I was finally able to shrink it back to original size with an unfortunate...string of sacrifices, but... well, then I made my fatal error."

Merida coughed, but she chose not to point out that it was quite a fatal error to sacrifice human beings. She glanced over at her companion sitting at the tub. Anna appeared to be listening with equal difficulty.

"Tonight... I thought for sure if the demon had enough people, that it would be sated for a while... a long while, perhaps. Instead, I just made it more powerful..." Alice paused, gesturing vaguely about the room. Her audience knew she didn't mean the washroom they were sitting in.

"I'm... a little lost. So you're saying tonight was supposed to be one mass sacrifice, then?"

Anna had asked the question. Merida glanced over, surprised to see the anger on the angel's face.

There was a silent pause as Alice averted their eyes and turned away to peer out of a window. "Yes. Only, it went quite wrong. I'm so sorry. I wish I'd never been born into this awful family."

The Venger heiress's story made about as much sense as the rest of the evening. This was precisely why Merida didn't trust her.

"Did you say you had to open a door each time you made a sacrifice?" Anna suddenly asked. Alice turned around and nodded. "And that's what the pillar was for? To open that door?" She paused to direct the question in part to the butler, who also nodded.

The angel paused. Her feathery wings twitched while she appeared to be working something through. She stood up after a moment to address both Grimsby and Alice. "So, if we close this door... will that save everyone?"

"It might. I'm sorry, I don't know... The situation's a bit irregular."

"I'll say," Merida chimed in.

"How do we close the door?" Anna asked. This time the angel was the one keeping them on task.

Alice immediately turned toward Grimsby. "Well," she began, gazing at the butler as if expecting him to correct or contradict her. "Usually, I just draw a circle when I conjure the doorway. When I erased it, that would close the door, so..."

"The pillar with all the names on it!" Merida exclaimed.

Even Alice looked hopeful. "Clear the pillar, close the door. Hopefully."

"But we still don't know if that will return everything back to normal," Anna pointed out.

Merida scowled. Anna was right.

"So long as the demon has not consumed everyone whose name is on the pillar, the ritual is incomplete. I think there's a chance everything will be reversed if you can close the door and cut the demon off," Alice explained. She looked extremely uncomfortable as all eyes turned toward her again. Clearly, the girl was not happy about her own knowledge of the occult.

Anna strode up to Merida with her brow deeply creased. The angel took her friend by the elbow and gently tugged her off to the side, speaking in a hushed voice. "Who knows how many the demon's consumed by now? What do you think?"

Merida lifted her tiny fingers to straighten her witch's hat as she shared the thought that had been growing ever since Alice first mentioned the demon's door.

"I think... if there's a chance to save everyone, then aye. We must take it."

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you so much for reading! The next chapter will be the conclusion.


	7. Chapter 7

"It's too quiet," Anna whispered. There was not a peep from any of the other upstairs rooms as she and Merida tiptoed to the grand staircase. The Scotsgirl glanced back in agreement but said nothing. Anna followed her cue of silence. Still, it was odd. It was only a few hours ago that the mansion was abound with screams, stampeding steps and ghoulish laughter. Had the demon eaten everyone else already? Did the demon cook them first? Anna grimaced, imagining a cartoon creature at a stove adding salt to a boiling pot of…

"Anna."

She snapped out of the gruesome thought. They had reached the bottom step. The front entrance stood across the foyer. They would find the pillar beyond that door.

Anna eyed the mansion entrance with reservation.

"Ye ready?" Merida asked.

The angel felt like shaking her head. Instead, she answered, "We have to be ready for anything." There was a good chance that the demon would try to stop them if it was somehow able to sense what they were up to.

"Aye," Merida agreed.

"Any idea how we clear the names off?"

Merida frowned and gave a theatrical waggle of her fingers. "Not exactly. I reckoned I'd just wave my hand, concentrate really hard and that might do it!"

Anna gulped. But if that was how Merida had gotten them this far, it would have to do. She gave the witch a nod of confidence and moved to walk side by side to the door. Her pulse sped up when Merida waved one hand to pull the door open with her magic. They peered outside to find the stoop was empty, as were the driveway and the yard beyond. Merida stepped out first when Anna hesitated.

"There…" Anna pointed at the front right pillar under the portico. The pair had barely taken two steps when someone rushed up from the driveway.

"Anna!" Elsa called.

"Elsa!"

The pillar forgotten, Anna leaped down the steps to grab Elsa into a fierce hug. The older sister yelped and then chuckled as she patted Anna's back and looked up at the witch still standing at the top of the entrance stairs. The angel pulled away to speak, though she kept her hands on Elsa's shoulders as if she were afraid to let go.

"How did you get away from Punz?"

Elsa's eyes glinted violet as she looked down at the ground. Her already pale face lost more of its color as a grim cloud seemed to hang over her. Anna gulped.

"Elsa, you didn't…"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said softly.

Anna nodded softly. Tonight was about survival.

"Well, we're here now," the angel said, giving her sister's arm a reassuring squeeze before she turned back toward Merida. "We three can set things right!" She was mid-step when she noticed the peculiar way Merida was looking down on them. She'd just opened her mouth to speak when she felt a quick, searing pain tear down her back. Yelping in pain, Anna stumbled forward and fell upon the steps. She gasped and struggled to turn around.

"Get back, demon!"

Anna's eyes blurred with tears but she recognized Merida's voice. Wind rose up on either side of her, uprooting the landscaping. She could barely register what was happening when she heard Elsa yell from behind her. Though it cost her to do so, Anna managed to twist her head around in time to see her older sister flung back in the air toward the driveway. A shower of soil, potted plants and bushes went flying with her. Anna scratched her fingers against the stone steps as she struggled to pull herself up. Still, her bloody fingertips were nothing compared to the gash on her back.

All at once, Merida was beside her, gently pulling her up to the stoop. To safety, Anna understood.

"But Elsa…" she murmured in confusion, wincing. Her back was cold with the steady trickle of blood.

"Aye, it was right in front of us all along, Anna," Merida explained, slowly rising to her feet. "Your sister was the demon."

"That… makes no sense," Anna whispered, hissing at the diagonal sting which burned along her back. Merida looked down at her, her eyes bright with pity. She shook her head and waved one hand over the angel. With that, the pain was still present but the wound began to close. She was able to get up on her feet and look out upon the driveway, where Elsa had recovered. Her eyes burned a menacing amethyst as she stalked toward them. The smile on her face was… wrong, Anna thought. It was contorted somehow. It did not belong to her sister.

"So, you figured me out?" not-Elsa called out to them.

"Elsa, stop this!" Anna pleaded, hoping her sister was still in there somewhere.

The demoness stared at her for a moment, that bizarre smile still in place. Finally, she shook her head. "You wanted to come to the party, sis!"

The angel shuddered. _Was_ it Elsa or not?

"Don't listen to it. It's attached itself to your sister. It's nothing more than a parasite. We'll be rid of it in a moment—"

"Ah, ah, ah~" Elsa interrupted, somehow overhearing Merida's hushed voice. "You'll be no such thing. Now, come back down, Anna. I wasn't finished with you."

Anna exchanged a horrified look with Merida. The witch's gaze flickered quickly to the pillar, and Anna understood. Merida would clear the pillar while she dealt with Elsa.

Frowning as she descended the steps this time, Anna held her hands up and tried to concentrate. It was a challenge with Elsa leering at her.

"Teamwork, huh? All right, sis. I'll deal with you first. The witch can wait. Angel blood is tastier, anyway!" Elsa stuck her tongue out and chuckled as she drew one hand back before flinging a wave of dark lightning toward Anna. The angel yelped and lunged out of the way. When she looked back to where she just stood, she saw the ground was charred and broken. With a gulp, she scrambled back up to her feet and focused back on calling the light she had used against vampire Hans.

Elsa wasn't holding back, so neither would she.

* * *

Merida took advantage of the clash between sisters and focused her own power on the pillar with all the guest names scratched all over it. The witch was determined not to slip up in the time Anna had bought for her. It was uncertain what other threats from the party remained that might interfere. She stared unblinking, imagining herself lifting a great cloth toward the pillar and swiping up and down every surface. To her amazement, the scratches filled in right away, the names fading as neatly as if she'd just wiped a dry-erase board. She fancied she looked pretty foolish smiling at her own private victory, but she didn't care.

Well, she didn't until she turned to find Anna still in a fray against the demoness, that is.

"Nothing… nothing's happening?" she asked herself. She'd had to stop herself from shouting out to Anna, not wanting to endanger the angel by distraction. Then, the witch turned her wild eyes back to the pillar, double checking that she had gotten all the names.

Everything should have been better now. She glanced back and forth between the pillar and the blasts of light and shadow striking each other on the driveway below.

Why was she still a witch? Why were the sisters still clashing?

She dashed down the steps after Anna dodged another demonic attack. The angel started when she felt the witch come up beside her.

"The pillar?"

"Cleared it," Merida answered dryly.

"So, it didn't work then…"

Laughter rang from the opposite side of the pavement. Elsa leaned over, erupting in uneven howls of amusement, gasping in exaggerated breaths over their defeat.

"Of _course_ it didn't work, ducklings! You're no match for me." The shadows under the demoness's eyes seemed to grow, her smile drawn up enough that it should have been painful. Her brows were knit together, her eyes wide and flashing violet in a strange, predatory gaze.

Anna inched closer to Merida, terrified of the stranger that had taken over her sister's body. But what were they to do now?

"Thanks for playing, though! It's been fun."

That same crackling darkness surrounded the demon as she took a step toward them, the shadows thickening with her next step forward.

"Well, that's new," Merida observed. Anna whimpered and struggled to put up a shield of light about herself and the witch. The glowing dome flickered, however. When Merida looked to Anna, she only just noticed the weariness in the angel's face. Divine or not, she was tired.

"Oy, hang in there. We just need more time to figure out where the actual door is."

Anna tilted her head, her eyes widening with some kind of realization upon Merida's words.

"Time… Merida… Merida, the _clock_!" she hissed, obviously trying to keep her voice down as Elsa continued to approach. The demon was taking her time, taunting them as she powered up her dark energy.

"The clock…?"

Anna nodded and stretched her hands up to refortify the shield she had put up. "Everyone changed when the clock struck midnight. What if the pillar was only a means to the ritual, and the clock IS the door?"

The barrier protecting them suddenly groaned. The girls looked up to see Elsa crouched over it, her fist enveloped in black lightning as she pushed at the light shield, slowly bending it inward. With one quick glance at each other, the angel and the witch threw themselves away from each other as Elsa finally broke though their shield and lunged toward them, her shadow-covered fist driving simmering hole into the ground on which they'd stood.

Anna flitted in the air in a panic, quickly rushing down to scoop Merida up off the grass. Elsa was already working up to come at them again with another attack.

"What are we supposed to do about her?" Merida asked, livid.

"You get to the clock. I'll handle Elsa."

* * *

The witch hesitated, but Anna didn't give her a chance to argue. She sprinted out onto the driveway, leaving Merida behind to the mansion entrance. The demoness looked from one woman to the other, clearly torn on how to divide her attention. So, Anna decided to leave her no choice. The angel reached out and scratched four bright red lines down her forearm. She was of course banking on the demon's remark about angel blood earlier. Even Hans had seemed obsessed with angel blood.

Fortunately for Anna, the demon _did_ have a taste for angel's blood.

Unfortunately for Anna, it had even less control over its hunger than vampire Hans.

In a single blink, the demoness had lunged across the driveway and pinned the angel down, gnashing and snarling while Anna screeched and kept her at arm's-length. Then, the demon grabbed Anna by the neck and squeezed the air out of her. She had regained enough to control to slowly tighten her grip at Anna's throat, watching the angel struggle and then pinken as her air was cut off.

For her part, Anna didn't panic. What was the point? But not being able to breathe, well, that was awful. She didn't want to go that way. But her arm ached, and the creature strangling her was not Elsa. She knew the moment she looked into the demon's eyes that Elsa was either gone or trapped too deep within the evil shell that had taken over her.

Had Elsa been possessed the whole time or did it happen at some point during their misadventures?

Anna's vision started to flicker and blur.

No matter. It didn't matter. She'd done what she could; the rest was up to Merida.

* * *

Merida forced herself to keep her eyes forward as she stumbled into the mansion. She'd seen Anna cut herself to draw Elsa's attention. She didn't want to see anymore. But if Anna was wrong about the clock…

The witch repelled that thought immediately. Anna could not be wrong. They couldn't afford it again. She knew as she dashed through the ghostly halls that she and the angel must be the last ones left. If they fell, the door would be left open, the demon left free to spread beyond the estate. Merida thought of her mom and her brothers, and she picked up speed, tripping into the ballroom as her foot knocked into a fallen painting. She went tumbling onto the carpeted floor, but she rolled through the motion and managed not to knock into anything else before she stopped on her side.

She stood shakily and took a deep breath before she looked all around her. The ballroom was… well, it was empty. There were several overturned chairs and a broken table. Many of the curtains had been ripped loose, some of the wallpaper torn to shreds. But she was the only living soul in the room. Hell, even the bodies she'd seen strewn throughout the mansion earlier had disappeared.

"The clock…" she murmured, turning to look about the room. She found the standing grandfather clock set against a wall between two large windows. "What the…?" The hands had stopped moving at the strike of midnight. Aside from that, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Perplexed, Merida took a few cautious steps forward. There was no door, unless one counted the glass protecting the clock face and pendulums.

She bit her lip. One could close a door. But what was she supposed to do about a broken clock?

"Nae… it couldn't be that easy." She glowered at the clock. But… it was true the trouble had started when the clock struck midnight, and now it was stuck at the hour. It felt like hours had passed, but as she thought about it, she could not be sure how much time it actually was.

"All right. This better work…" She mumbled and straightened her hat before she glared at the antique and focused her powers on reviving it. She felt strange directing her energy into it, as if something was resisting her interference. But with one final push, the secondhand wriggled back to life and slowly began to circle around the clockface. The witch grew especially hopeful as it neared the Roman numeral 'X'. Ten… nine… eight…

Merida blinked and held her breath.

…five… four… three…

"Please work," she whispered.

Two… one.

The moment the minute hand moved, a vibrant gleam filled the room. Merida cried out and shielded her eyes as the light soon took up the entire ballroom and kept expanding, shortly followed by a ringing and roaring which hurt her ears.

Just when her head was beginning to feel like it would split from the noise, everything abruptly went silent and dim. Merida blinked, her eyes adjusting to the lighting in the room. There were a few groans and gasps from the floor around her. As she looked around, she spotted several people slowly stirring from what looked to be accidental naps.

"What the hell did they put in that punch?" a gentleman dressed like a pirate asked as he brought one fake hook-hand up to his head and scratched his bushy dark hair.

"Right? I had the weiiirdest dream!" someone else said. The woman looked up at Merida, who was smiling like an absolute fool. "Are you okay, miss?"

The witch nodded, chuckling like a madwoman.

"Never better!" she said.

* * *

The death-grip loosened from Anna's neck, and a scream jolted her awake. Her eyelids snapped open. She found Elsa staring at her, horrified. "Are you all right?! What was I…?! Anna, I'm so sorry! I don't know what I was—"

Anna put one hand up, using her other to rub at her sore neck. She opened her mouth, though she was surprised she still had a voice. "I hear they spiked the punch," she joked weakly.

Elsa giggled, but Anna could see the water in her eyes. Lights were coming back on in the windows of the mansion. She looked past her sister, grateful that Merida had been successful.

The door to the mansion opened, and Anna half-expected Merida to walk out. Instead, it was a livelier version of Kristoff. Anna hesitated when he stepped out, waiting for his gaze to halt in recognition when he spotted her with Elsa. "Oh, there you are!" he waved.

Anna flashed him a nervous grin. While she was happy to see him back to normal, she didn't think she'd be able to rid herself of the memory of him biting that old woman. Not for a long while, anyway.

"What's with you?" he asked as he approached the two sisters, noting the uncomfortable vibe from Anna. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Augh…" He suddenly grabbed at his stomach.

Elsa put a hand on Kristoff's shoulder, her brow furrowed. "Are you okay?"

Kristoff grimaced but managed to nod. "Yeah, my stomach's just a little off… I think I'll head home. You guys have a ride?"

Anna thought of Merida and nodded. Kristoff looked relieved and waved before he ambled down the driveway in search of his car.

"What happened to that girl? Merida, was it?" Elsa asked.

"Oh. I think she's still inside…"

Anna gently took her sister by the arm and started to lead the way back into the house. So far it seemed like she was the only one who remembered the events from the evening. As she closed the door behind them, she decided that this was not entirely a bad thing. Neither Kristoff nor Elsa would be able to handle the guilt. She bumped into her sister as she turned in the direction of the ballroom, seeing that Elsa had stopped short in front of someone.

 _Hans?_

Anna looked up in surprise. She'd forgotten about him. He smiled a bit awkwardly and then hurried past the two of them. Anna turned to watch him go, surprised he hadn't said anything.

"Was it just me or did he seem… scared?" she said. When she looked at Elsa again, she was startled by the stern look on her face. Her eyes only softened when she met Anna's gaze.

"Well, he should be. I um… may have had words with him."

Anna tilted her head, confused. "When would you have had the time to… wait, what?"

Elsa dropped her gaze, looking a bit guilty.

"Elsa… what do you mean you had _words_ with him?"

Exasperated, her older sister crossed her arms. "He's… he's a flirt, Anna. I saw him around the office, hitting on other girls when the two of you were going out. I had a talk with him, and—"

"…and he ghosted me because you scared him off?" Anna interrupted, pleased to see Elsa squirm with guilt. But she sighed as she took in the new information.

"I'm sorry," Elsa said. She was back to looking at her feet.

Anna wrapped one arm around her sister and started to guide her back to the ballroom. "I'm not mad," she said.

"You're not?"

Truthfully, she wasn't.

"I mean… I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't meddle in my dating life, going forward," Anna began. She felt Elsa tense up, and she gave her a reassuring hug as they entered the ballroom. Merida spotted them from across the room and began to move toward them. "But… Hans didn't even try to fight for me or clarify things. He was a coward." Still, she couldn't deny to herself the longing she felt by just thinking about said coward. They'd had some good times.

In a gesture most unlike herself, Merida squealed when she reached them. Then, throwing an arm around Anna, she exclaimed, "Oy! We did it!"

"You did it!" Anna corrected her.

"Did what?" Elsa asked, clearly perplexed by how close her sister had grown to the witch in the short time they'd been at the party.

Anna cleared her throat. "Uh… found you. Yeah. I was looking for you earlier. You went off somewhere. Um. Nothing."

Elsa narrowed her eyes for a moment, looking from Merida to Anna with third-degree scrutiny. Then, she shrugged. "Whatever. I'm parched. Do either of you want punch?"

"NO!" both girls yelled in unison, startling Elsa so much that she shrieked.

"Okay, okay! I get it, no punch! You weirdoes!" The demoness shook her head in bewilderment before she excused herself to go get her drink. This left Anna and Merida giggling to themselves, free to appreciate the fruits of their efforts.

"Everything back to the normal then," Merida observed.

"Yeah.. and to think, back to work tomorrow. You said you're in accounting, right?" Anna asked as she recalled bits of their conversation from the start of the evening. Merida nodded, distracted by a band of knights in armor doing the electric slide. She snorted in amusement and followed Anna further away from the dance floor, lest they be dragged into the activity.

"Aye. It's boring, but it pays the bills. For now!" She winked. "I'm thinking of getting into the occult."

This time, Anna snorted. She was sure neither one of them wanted anything to do with the occult after that evening.

"Help!" someone cried, dashing between the two friends. "Help, she's after me!"

Anna stumbled forward as her cousin's boyfriend Eugene knocked past her. He paused and turned, squawking in alarm when he saw whoever pursued him was much closer to catching him than he thought. He quickly adjusted his sparkly crown and then sprinted forward into the mass of dancers on the ballroom floor.

"What the—" Merida was interrupted as a blonde chef paused between her and Anna. She looked at both of them and smiled as she quietly shook a cleaver at them. Merida and Anna both yelped, which made Rapunzel giggle before she tore off toward the dancers in search of her boyfriend.

When the blonde was gone, Merida and Anna relaxed somewhat, chuckling over their own jumpiness.

"I may have some punch after all," Anna decided after a moment.

"Aye, let's! We deserve it!" Merida agreed.

Together, they shuffled off in the direction Elsa had gone, hoping they'd eventually forget about the curse on Venger Estate.

* * *

 **A/N:** The end!

Honestly, I know this is not my best work, but it was fun to just run with a prompt.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It helped me focus on completing this… once I finally had time to. 😊


End file.
